Frank's breath caught in his throat. The world spun. "T-That's Sammy? The one from your past?" he managed to croak.
Hazel's eyes were wide with surprise. "Yes, it's him," she whispered softly. As if in a trance, she began to walk toward him. "Sammy," she called. "Sammy, it's me." Her dark black curls, the curls that Frank loved so much, bounced up and down as she walked toward her past boyfriend with unsteady feet. Her coffee brown skin was the color of chocolate in the sunlight, and Frank yearned so badly to touch that skin again, to hold her in her arms, to hug her, to comfort her.
But he couldn't. Because now, Sammy was here. Sammy was going to do all that Frank had wanted to do, Sammy was going to protect her, and hold her and tell her he loved her.
Frank felt like punching something. Particularly Sammy, or Leo.
Leo's head turned. His face was confused at first, but when he caught sight of Hazel, his mouth widened into an o. "Hazel? Is that you?" he peered at her anxiously, searching for an answer in her light brown eyes. "Hazel…" his voice cracked. "How did you—"
"Sammy," Hazel repeated, and then tackled Leo with a ferocious hug, a ferocious hug that should've been Frank's. "Sammy, I've missed you so much," her voice was muffled as she buried her head in his hair.
Frank turned away, disgusted. He began walking back to his cabin. His bitterness soon turned to sadness as he realized he had just lost his best friend.
Someone tapped him on his shoulder. He turned around to see Percy's green eyes staring back at him. "Yeah, man?"
"Sorry about that, you know," he motioned awkwardly toward the scene going on, "about Hazel and stuff." He paused for a second, and then continued with renewed vigor, "But I'm sure she'll come back, Frank. I mean, sure, yeah, Sammy—I mean Leo—is a real surprise, and she's missed him. But dude, I saw the way she looked at you before."
"Before," Frank echoed, his voice hollow.
"And she'll look at you the same way," he assured. "Seriously. Just wait a while and you'll see."
Frank forced a smile on his face. "Thanks."
Percy shuffled his feet. "Yeah, well, what are friends for? Let's go get some food. Cokes are on me, man." He flashed a smile as he hefted a six pack out of his bag.
Frank nodded, his energy suddenly drained. He dragged his feet as they walked to the woods.
As they walked over, as luck would have it, Hazel intercepted them, Leo in tow. "Guys! Guys!" she waved to get their attention. "I want you guys to meet Sammy."
"C'mon, call me Leo," he protested. "It's my name and all. You didn't have to suffer a name change, but I did. I'm more used to Leo, you using Sammy is kind of…weird. Brings back memories."
Hazel shrugged. "Fine. Guys, meet Leo. He was my boyfriend, back in the 1930s…" She trailed off. "My first life," she added.
Frank thought, "We get it," but simply said, "Hey, I'm Frank."
Percy greeted him a little bit more warmly, saying, "Welcome to Camp Jupiter," and clapping him on the back.
Sammy flashed them a small smile before scraping his feet on the ground again, making the leaves fly up in flurries.
"Where were you guys going?" Hazel grinned a heart-breaking smile, and Frank had to blink some unwelcome tears out.
Percy gave Frank a sidelong glance, before answering slowly, "We were just going to go out to the woods, y'know, hang out."
"Awesome," Hazel smiled brightly. "We'll join you."
Percy gave him another do-you-want-to-do-this? glance. Frank nodded, albeit a bit weakly. Percy turned back. "Sure, we'd love to have you join us."
In a spot of bitterness, Frank thought, "Not like you ever thought about whether we wanted you there or not." Instead of voicing his not-so-nice thoughts, he just looked to the ground and began brooding. Angry, but seeing nothing available to take his anger out on (oh, he would just love to punch that pretty little face of Leo's—though he knew it wasn't really fair, Leo had come before him—sadly, his face wasn't available as a punchbag), he just began to kick rocks and sticks on the forest floor, to the annoyance of the forest nymphs. He knew they would come back for him, and he would regret it then, but right now, the only thought going around in his head was, "I just lost my best friend."
Hazel's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Frank, are you okay?"
He just nodded again. Her voice was a little bit wearier, edged with annoyance as she said, "No, Frank, you're not okay. You're furious, and even I know that. So why won't you tell me what you want?'
He whirled on her. Her eyes were wide as she nearly bumped into him when she tried to stop. "No, I'm not okay," he snapped. "And you know why? Because he—" Frank pointed at Leo, "some random guy from sixty years ago tries to just swoop in and take you from me. I thought you were my best friend, but apparently not, because since Leo came you haven't even looked at me."
Hazel, whom was frightened at first, soon turned to anger. "Well, you know what?" She poked him in the chest, which made him stumble back. "You're being selfish right now. Leo was my best friend from before, and who can't blame me for trying to reconcile with him? Yes, maybe, I haven't paid you a lot of attention, but that's because I haven't seen Leo for decades. You're taking away my time with him, and you're also probably making him really uncomfortable, I say. So why can't you just give me some space?"
She was mad, Frank realized, she was really mad. His mind whirling in a way to make up to her, he just came up with one phrase. "Because I love you," he whispered softly. Then, he turned tail and ran out of the forest as fast as his stubby legs could carry him.
Finding a fallen tree to rest on, he put his head in his hands. "Shit," he groaned. "Oh my gods, please tell me I didn't just say that."